Pregnant Indians told: no lust or meat
Print Edition
INDIA’S government is advising pregnant women to avoid all meat, eggs and lusty thoughts.
Doctors say the advice is preposterous, and even dangerous, considering India’s already-poor record with maternal health. Women are often the last to eat or receive health care in traditionally patriarchal Indian households.
Malnutrition and anemia, or iron deficiency, are key factors behind India having one of the world’s highest rates of maternal mortality, with 174 of every 100,000 pregnancies in 2015 resulting in the mother’s death. That’s better than five years earlier, when the maternal mortality rate was 205 deaths per 100,000 live births, but still far worse than China’s 27 per 100,000 or the United States’ 14 per 100,000, according to UNICEF.
“The government is doling out unscientific and irrational advice, instead of ensuring that poor pregnant women get to eat a nutritious, high-protein diet,” said gynecologist Arun Gadre, who is based in the western city of Pune but works in rural areas.
The government booklet, titled “Mother and Child Care,” smacks of religious dogma and ignores widely accepted medical evidence that pregnant women benefit from eating protein-rich meats and can safely engage in sex, doctors said.
The booklet says pregnant women should also shun “impure thoughts” and look at pictures of beautiful babies to benefit the fetus.
“Pregnant women should detach themselves from desire, anger, attachment, hatred and lust,” reads the booklet, released last week by the Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy, part of the government ministry that promotes traditional and alternative medicine.
The traditional medicine minister defended the booklet as containing “wisdom accumulated over many centuries,” and said it did not advise specifically against sex, only against lustful thoughts.
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